Space and astronomy news
An illustration of the Vela pulsar with particles accelerated and launched out at near light speed by its magnetic field. Credit: Science Communication Lab for DESY
Pulsars are known for their regularity and stability. These fast-rotating neutron stars emit radio waves with such consistent pulses that astronomers can use them as a kind of cosmic clock. But recently a pulsar emitted gamma rays with tremendous energy. The gamma rays were the most energetic photons ever observed, with energies of more than 20 teraelectronvolts, and astronomers are struggling to understand how that’s possible.
Scenarios where accelerated particles might create high-energy gamma rays. Credit: The HESS Collaboration But in this case, the gamma rays are more intense than the magnetic fields of neutron stars should produce. Vela’s magnetic field is intense, but that on its own can’t explain why these bursts of gamma rays are so powerful. However, the team has noticed that the energetic light cone of the Vela Pulsar is unusually wide. This could be a clue to how it generates such high-energy particles.
It will take more research to pin down the answer. But this discovery shows that the interaction of intense magnetic fields and charged particles can occur in unexpected ways, and the upper limits of energy are not bound by our traditional models, This has implications for other powerful magnetic fields, such as those in the vicinity of black holes.
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